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Over half the world's population is starving Crucified... by the greed of landowners Helpless... against the imbalance of priorities Practiced by the major powers who, if they wanted to, could help Every minute of the day millions upon million of pounds Are spent on the machinery of war If only a half of that was spent on the machinery of peace There would be no more starvation on this planet Yet governments pay no heed to the cries of suffering They perhaps make token gestures to appease their consciences But no real improvements are made Because to ensure control the superpowers need to maintain the imbalance Natives are slaughtered In their homelands By governments seeking out New possessions Most of the wealth of the so called developed nations Has been gained at the expense of the Third World From whom natural resources Both mineral and human Have been unscrupulously exploited Peoples' pride and dignity Is burnt in Napalm And hand-held flame-throwers The poor and underprivileged are raped and tormented By leaders who use their power not to assist, but to oppress At the wave of a gloved hand these people can, and do Send young men to their death, But not before others too Have fallen from their bayonets and guns! Such armies are invariably called 'peacekeeping forces' The hypocrisy is as appalling as it is obvious The wealthy, educated Privileged and secure Make the lives of those less fortunate a complete misery Million upon millions of people are dying From malnutrition Because, to stabilise their economies... Governments destroy food rather than giving it to the needy! "Let them eat cake" said Marie Antoinette As she wiped the calf's blood from her lips "Proud to be British" said Margaret Thatcher As she wiped the Falkland's blood from her hands The ruling elite have no concept of what it is to suffer want Yet it is they who are directly responsible In a world where there are people who can't afford a crust of bread These arrogant scabs drive around in Bentleys and Rolls Royces Perhaps it amuses them to rub shit into the faces of the poor But there'll come a time when such overt displays of wealth Will not be tolerated by the people in the street In a sane society wealth and possession would not be an asset A few years ago a politician was on the radio Saying that no one in the UK suffered from want Next day I saw an old man pleading for a handful of coal: His wife was dying of cold and he was penniless Maybe in the morning, as the politician sipped breakfast tea She lay cold and dead before the empty grate Every year thousand of people die of hypothermia Too hungry, too cold Too poor to stay alive At times of national crisis it's always the poor who suffer "Back Britain" we're told As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer At times of international crisis it's the same story "Back Britain" we're told As the rich get richer and the poor get killed In the event of a nuclear crisis The rich will retreat to private bunkers with their wealth and possessions The injustice of inequality is sanctioned by the church With its tradition of finance from the gentry The church has always been obliged To ensure that its flock remains servile "Repent ye sinners or be devoured in the flames of hell." Those very same flames that devoured their enemies in countless religious wars So often the church has marched hand in hand with the military Casting its blessings upon the writhing bodies of the battlefield Each stab of bayonet is God's word Each crash of steel is God's word Each torn limb and splash of blood is God's word For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons Each sodden grave and sodding death is God's word For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons In Christian societies executions are attended by representatives of the church Goggle-eyed before the gallows, the electric chair and the gas-chamber They administer their Christ's blessing In America poison is injected into the blood-stream Another Christ dies, jacked up by the state Another glorious advance for civilization One small step for man One giant step for mankind For he so loved the world He gave us his only begotten son And likewise we are expected so to do For he so loved the world Violent, vicious hypocrisy How is anyone supposed to deal with these contradictions Confusions and lies? They defy reason! Oh yes, you can inwardly laugh at the absurdity Satirise the obscenity, but the hysteria soon wears thin And the tears wear a colder complexion Humor can offer diversion But it dilutes real anger And nothing gets confronted We are ruled by dangerous mad-people What's funny about that for f*cks sake? The world is daily threatened with annihilation Is that really something to be trivialized? The world is under constant threat Against this background of fear We struggle to create our own authority While being bludgeoned into conformity We struggle to find our inner selves Of course I feel uncomfortable when I'm laughed at in the streets But I don't want to be one of them I want to be an outsider At the same time I'd like to come in out of the cold Urgency overrules personal fears Against the scenario of total destruction We demand a sanity that might save the world That alone excludes us from the mainstream of thought History offers no solutions Quotes from Mao or Stalin, Hitler or Marx Simply confirms the oppression I'm tired of political experts Tired of 'if onlys' They have always been the same people Grey visionless robots Who would have us all share their death History is simply a justification for oppression Written by those who practice it It is being constantly changed and rewritten To conform to the requirements of the ruling elite A tempest of convenience that blasts across the blistered bodies of the dead We receive at best only filtered truths Most of what we see and hear is lies The Falklands War was rewritten as it happened It was not a glorious victory for the British spirit Nor an heroic defeat of a fascist dictator It was a callous and savage piece of electioneering Designed to cover up horrific domestic problems At a time when a peaceful settlement was a possibility Thatcher personally ordered the sinking of the General Belgrado Killing over three hundred men And horribly mutilating many more! She did this because her political neck required bloodshed To prove her wisdom in releasing the Task Force The history books will not document her as a cold-blooded murderer! I'm tired of the dull rationalization of the politicians Weighed down with their sums and inadequacies I feel only anger and bellied hatred for them How can anyone become so distorted? How can anyone be so far from real human values? I feel only disgust for their twisted minds How can peace be achieved through threats of violence? What kind of hope is there in that strait-jacket? The authority of those who oppress us Is supported, maintained and defended By those who are themselves the most oppressed; Those who, because they have no alternative, are in service to the rulers How can I feel anger towards the squaddy? Weighed down with his guns and inadequacies I can feel only pity and bellied compassion How can anyone be so distorted? How can anyone be so far from real human values? I can only feel pity for his twisted mind How can freedom be achieved if the poor fight to uphold The privileges of those who directly oppress them? We look through one eye hoping the other won't see That way we only need deal with a half of it Like bloody ostriches, oblivious Not because we are, but because we choose to be Most people see through the lies But are too afraid to admit it It's so much easier to be the passive observer How much longer can people afford to just sit by like this? All the indications are there Massive unemployment, recession, depression But who's looking? Who cares? Tamely the population is being led down the road to total bondage Government is daily strengthening its powers Those who stand against it are ridiculed, discredited or abused and punished Those in power are totally cynical Rather than analysing the seriousness of the problem They simply strengthen the army and police to combat it They are ready for the inevitable response It happened in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side It happens daily in Northern Ireland Under Thatcher's regime there has been massive increases in police brutality In London police shot down a man Only to find it was the wrong person We regret to inform you Regret to inform you Regret to inform you We regret to inform you... That today another Christ was shot in the back of the head We regret to inform you Regret to inform you That another Christ, not yet ten years old, was shot today By agents of Her Majesty's Government, with a plastic bullet They say that plastic bullets were designed not to kill They do I say that human beings were not designed to kill, not us, not me; We do We regret to inform you 1984 is a book about the positive danger of totalitarianism Under Thatcher's unfeeling guidance the scenario is one year early With the cold mechanism of the pinball arcade We're flicked around as numbers by the hidden computers Software in the hardware Documented and filed We have no access to the information that they have stored on us Ticker-tape alter egos, print-out portraits We are becoming another As individuals within that mechanical system, we are arbitrary Wanted only for what can be taken from us Our future is of no concern to the mega-corporations Who determine the nature of our economic well-being Thatcher's policies require massive unemployment Which makes her order to 'support our boys' nothing but a f*cking insult When they were eight thousand miles away dying for her arrogance She fabricated what was a complete mockery of compassion When they're at home, jobless on the streets She doesn't give a f*ck for them Self determination and self enterprise are her big lines But just how much of that does she offer to others In her contemptible use of people? She was prepared to risk world peace Saying that it was for the self determination of the Falklanders Those very same people who over a year ago She was prepared to abandon without a thought And now, for all her empty talk They are forced to live in a fortress waiting for further hostilities Thatcher has recently sanctioned a loan of one hundred million pounds to Argentina Claiming that it was to stabilize world economy The purchase of further Exocets and the development of nuclear potential Should do much for world economy, but very little for world security Just what the f*ck was all that bloodshed for? Thatcher has signed away British self-determination in one single stroke She has agreed to install deadly cruise missiles on British soil Over which the Americans have total control The American military presence is designed solely To limit nuclear war with Russia to the 'European Theater' Meanwhile we are sold the wicked lie of protection and deterrence American war planners have repeatedly stated that they intend To fight the Third World War on European soil Cruise missiles greatly increase the danger of that happening Designed to avoid radar detection by skimming the earth's surface Cruise missiles are seen as the ideal 'first strike weapon' They also guarantee a massive response that would make Britain into a nuclear desert Military naivety is astounding. The experts seriously believe That they will be able to limit war to the 'theater' In this particular show the world will be the stage There'll be no encore Thatcher and her cronies talk of 'limited tactical response' And 'executive action' causing 'collateral damage' These terms are borrowed from their American counterparts And are designed to mask the ugly reality that they describe In everyday language 'collateral damage' simply means civilian deaths In the event of nuclear attack on Britain That would amount to thirty-eight million people Is it any wonder that these crazy psychotics Invent jargon to assist them in their studied madness? Every year hundreds of innocent people still die horrific deaths As a result of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki It is probably that an all out nuclear war Would destroy all life on planet Earth We are not talking fantasy Nor preaching doom We are talking of an existing reality; The one that we allow to exist around us Defence Secretary Heseltine disputes the kind of information that we offer Claiming that it has 'no basis in fact' There are no words to describe the utter contempt That we feel for people of his kind They sit in their seats of power Distorting and perverting all human decency How can they dare be so blatant? How can they dare be so hypocritical? Who is this Heseltine with his corrupt lies? Who is this Thatcher with her arrogant deceit? These hideous mutants cast their shadows Across all that is worthwhile and good Cruise missile will be installed because Thatcher has created some kind of deal with Reagan We will probably never know The details of that arrangement It will almost certainly involve some kind of economic juggling act The massive corporations turning political thumbscrews On U.S. investment in Britain Russian tanks in Afghanistan are nothing Compared with the bargaining power of American capital in the UK Whatever the nature of that deal is It has made Britain into America's front line The fifty-third State, with no rights of citizenship To many people that might not matter Fed from birth on American propaganda and Hollywood trash The resistance levels are low As long as we passively accept American domination We can except no real advance We are being sold down the line!! To many people the missiles and warheads might not matter To many people nuclear reality is too huge to contemplate Yet for all people the reality looms constantly in nightmares In the nuclear state we are expected to accept those nightmares Is this really all that we can hope for as life? Is this really all that we can hope for as death? Maybe our lives don't matter that much But why impose our madness on future generations? Or is it perhaps that you no longer believe that there will be future generations? In your passive acceptance of it You have already allowed the Holocaust to happen The future is ended! We are not talking fantasy Nor preaching doom We are talking of an existing reality The one that we allow to exist around us The nuclear hardware produces in the last three decades Will pollute the Earth for thousands of years A nuclear war will destroy it! Is that why the cherry trees blossom? You are destroying and corrupting! In condemning them to the nuclear nightmare Are you willing to accept the burning of tomorrow's unborn? They know nothing of this sorrow!! Suffer little children to come unto me Suffer little children to come unto me Suffer little children to come unto me Suffer little children to come unto me In your refusal to act against these hideous dangers You are guilty of being the gutless passive observer Are you so inhuman that you will let this happen? Just a helpless bystander waving your flag in mute acceptance? Take up your eyes and see! Take up your ears and hear! Take up your mind and think! Take up your life and act! It is up to us all as responsible citizens of Earth To work towards the downfall of the powerful elite Their rule has created dreadful suffering! Their insanity precludes all reason and compassion! They lie, trick and manipulate! They are the maggots in the flesh of decency The vultures that pick at the bones of hope The carriers of famine, war, pestilence, and death They must be stopped! Why should people die for their insanity? Why should people starve for their insanity? Why should people suffer the spitefulness of their greed? We must not be intimidated by the authority that they appear to have We must be prepared to oppose them on every level To fight back in the knowledge that if we don't We will have failed in our responsibility to life itself It has happened before that the powerless have risen against the oppressor Only to be beaten back! But there have been cases where they have succeeded: Ours is a just cause It is up to each one of us, alone, to do our best We must learn to overcome our fears! We must realize that the strength that they have Is the strength that we give them! It is you, the passive observer who has given them this power! You are being used and abused And will be discarded as soon as they've bled what they want from you! You must learn to live with your own conscience Your own morality Your own decision Your own self! You alone can do it: There is no authority but yourself "One squaddy, horrifically burnt in the Falklands War, was approached by Prince Charles during a presentation 'Get well soon' said the Prince, to which the squaddy replied 'Yes Sir, I Will'."
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